Monday, February 27, 2006

Into the Schools

February 20, 2006, Monday. 11:44pm.

With a little ingenuity and a bit of begging, Hillary and I revived the VCT�s mobile outreach program, which had gone on unintentional hiatus back in November due to, well, you know. Starts with a �c,� but it�s not Communism. Anyway since the VCT had no funds to pay for transport and lunch allowances for an outreach program, we decided to ask the village hospital if we could tag along in their ambulance when they went out for mobile clinics, and conduct HIV/AIDS awareness at nearby schools. They were more than happy to oblige, and invited us to be a part of their school health program, a combination of mobile clinics and health talks.

The best part of all this is not that I get to ride in an ambulance (no siren, more like a glorified paddy wagon) but the fact that one of the nurses promised that the next time a newly-dewormed student passes a worm, she�ll save it for me so I can see what it looks like.

Anyway, Hillary and I went to a primary school today and talked to sixth- through eighth graders. One of the teachers had been through a workshop on how to teach about HIV/AIDS in schools. He kindly offered to let us borrow his notes, which began: �Where did AIDS come from? 1.) AIDS came from America when homosexuals started committing sinful acts with each other.�

This one was new. No one knows for sure the origins of AIDS; many American scientists think a researcher conducting research in Africa acquired a simian form of HIV from monkeys, which then mutated into a virus capable of living in human beings. In Africa many people believe that AIDS came from America or Europe; some go so far as to say that the virus was cooked up in an American lab and shipped to Africa to further oppress Africans. But this was the first time I�d heard the gay theory.

His notes continued: AIDS is a punishment from God. People get AIDS because they have committed a sin (with a list of sins punishable by AIDS). Condoms have holes that allow viruses to pass through (accompanied by a chart with diameters of holes in latex vs. diameters of HIV and other STDs). Masturbation is a moral perversion. Private parts should only be used for the purpose they were designed for; they should not be touched any other way. Activities that spread AIDS: men having sex with men, women having sex with women, kissing.

Hillary listened patiently while I railed against the notes after the teacher had left the room. I was preaching to the choir for the 900th time, but the choir understood and nodded sympathetically.

We moved to the classroom and began teaching the standard lesson � What is AIDS? How do you get AIDS? How do you prevent AIDS? It was clear the students already knew the basics, so I started asking them to ask me questions instead. The ninety students were silent. Their teacher (the one with the notes) was watching them.

It was the first time I had taught students younger than high school, and I hadn�t thought about how to discuss the ABCs (Abstain, Be faithful, Condom use) appropriately for the age group. Off the top of my head I said, �Be faithful means for married people like your parents, they should be faithful to each other. If you have older brothers or sisters and they have a partner, they should be faithful to each other.� It was totally patronizing but it was the best I could come up with on the spot.

Finally one grinning eighth grader asked, �So is it okay if we�re faithful too?� It was one of those high-context Kenyan phrasings, so I had to ask for clarification. The actual question was, �Which of the ABCs do we use if we have a partner?�

I knew it was a Catholic school and I knew after reading the teacher�s notes that the �correct� answer was to abstain.

�It�s your choice,� I said. I could see the teacher cringing in the corner. �You know the risks of each option so it�s up to you to decide what�s right for you.� Then I added some other stuff about how if you get pregnant or get someone pregnant, or if you get sick from an STD, it could cost you your education and your future, and the teacher seemed relieved. He wrapped up our presentation by reinterpreting the ABCs for his students:

�You need to abstain from sex to avoid getting AIDS. You need to be faithful to your partner by abstaining from sex. And C is for condoms, but I don�t want any of you using condoms.�

We had some extra time afterwards because the ambulance was late picking us up, so I asked the students to write down any questions they might have on a piece of paper, anonymously, and pass it to me. I wasn�t sure if I would get much of a response since I didn�t get many questions earlier. Instead I was bombarded with questions the students were too embarrassed to ask aloud, in front of the teacher and their peers.

Do condoms have holes in them? Do condoms prevent AIDS? Can you get AIDS from kissing? Can you get AIDS from shaking hands with someone with an open wound on their hand?

The problem, I�m discovering as I talk to more youths, is that people get so many mixed messages from so many different places in their lives � AIDS is a punishment from God, yet you shouldn�t judge or shun people with AIDS because they�re innocent; abstain until marriage, but you�re not a real man if you don�t have sex to test out your goods before you marry someone; use condoms, but you don�t need to use condoms because you�re supposed to abstain unless you�re a prostitute or some other immoral person, therefore the only people who use condoms are immoral people; everyone is a sinner, and if you sin God will give you AIDS, so don�t sin.

No wonder people are so confused. Part of me feels like dropping in on a school once a year isn�t going to make much of an impact. Kids (and everyone else for that matter) need consistent messages from everyone in their lives � schools, religious leaders, parents, peers � but most of the time they have nowhere to turn for answers except their peers, because everyone else just tells them to abstain abstain abstain, and if you�re abstaining you don�t need to know anything about sex, so why are you asking about it? And when all your peers are facing the same void of information, it�s just the blind leading the blind.

One of the most disturbing things I learned this week is that reproductive health education in schools is minimal, or nonexistent. Students learn about sperms and eggs and reproductive organs from a strictly biological perspective, but there�s no lesson about what happens to boys� and girls� bodies during puberty. And in the Nandi culture parents don�t talk to their kids about it. Most girls have no idea what�s happening when they get their period for the first time, and they think there�s something wrong with them. But they�re too ashamed to tell anyone about it, so they suffer through their anxiety alone. Even after they realize periods are normal, they�re too embarrassed to ask their parents for money to buy pads.

I am going to work a lesson on reproductive health into our school health program. We went around to a bunch of schools to schedule a time to visit them, and I asked each headmaster what information he or she felt was most important for us to teach the kids. They all said malaria or AIDS or basic hygiene, but no one mentioned reproductive health, probably because it�s just not on their cultural radar screen. We�ll see how well this type of content goes over on the frontlines. Stay tuned to this space.